Camping and Rock Climbing

3.5.2008 von Ines.

May 1st is always a public holiday in China. This year it was proposed to work on May 4th (Sunday) in order to get May 2nd (Friday) off. Most companies agreed to that suggestion. So 5 friends and me decided to go for a 3 day 2 night wild camping plus rock climbing weekend. Unfortunately I had to participate in the bicycle race in the morning of May 1st, so two of us took a long distance bus to get us out of Beijing and into the North near the new rock climbing site.

As it was the May 1st holiday also other people were traveling with buses. It was actually good that we took the bus in the afternoon as the mass of people had already arrived at their destinations and the queue to buy a bus ticket was shorter than we feared it would be.

We met the others who had set up the tents right in the small bee valley where other Beijing climbers had set up 30 new climbing routes late last year. It is beautiful rock with many more possibilities to be developed. If you have a close look at this picture you can see a tiny white dot in the middle of the cliff (slightly right of the center of this picture). That is Echo climbing one of the longest routes in this area.

The first morning the weather was okay. It was slightly overcast but very pleasant temperature. We had a big breakfast together on our private “camp ground”.

And then we went rock climbing. There were some really interesting routes. Some had overhangs - some were face - some had chimneys. It was a lot of fun. Click here to see all of the pictures of this trip.

We were looking forward to the next climbing day. That morning we had nice breakfast when suddenly very strong wind started. We just finished packing away the breakfast remainders when it started to rain. We waited and read books in our tents hoping the rain would stop soon. After a while we decided to wait for the rain to get less and then pack our things and head back to Beijing. Echo and her friend decided to wait in her car. When we had a look their tent had already flown away… So we packed up despite the rain and drove back. Friends who stayed in Beijing that day said that it was a big storm with hail.

Geschrieben in China, Climbing | 1 Kommentar »